Assessment of Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences: A Meeting Report

The Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences Network (CUREnet) was initiated in 2012 with funding from the National Science Foundation program for Research Coordination Networks in Undergraduate Biology Education. CUREnet aims to address topics, problems, and opportunities inherent to integrating research experiences into undergraduate courses. During CUREnet meetings and discussions, it became apparent that there is need for a clear definition of what constitutes a CURE and systematic exploration of what makes CUREs meaningful in terms of student learning. Thus, we assembled a small working group of people with expertise in CURE instruction and assessment to: 1) draft an operational definition of a CURE, with the aim of defining what makes a laboratory course or project a “research experience”; 2) summarize research on CUREs, as well as findings from studies of undergraduate research internships that would be useful for thinking about how students are influenced by participating in CUREs; and 3) identify areas of greatest need with respect to CURE assessment, and directions for future research on and evaluation of CUREs. This report summarizes the outcomes and recommendations of this meeting.

Students can work with the same data at the same time and with the same tools as research scientists.iPlant Education, Outreach & Training Group (2008, personal communication)

     

A High-Enrollment Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience Improves Student Conceptions of Scientific Thinking and Ability to Interpret Data

We present an innovative course-based undergraduate research experience curriculum focused on the characterization of single point mutations in p53, a tumor suppressor gene that is mutated in more than 50% of human cancers. This course is required of all introductory biology students, so all biology majors engage in a research project as part of their training. Using a set of open-ended written prompts, we found that the course shifts student conceptions of what it means to think like a scientist from novice to more expert-like. Students at the end of the course identified experimental repetition, data analysis, and collaboration as important elements of thinking like a scientist. Course exams revealed that students showed gains in their ability to analyze and interpret data. These data indicate that this course-embedded research experience has a positive impact on the development of students’ conceptions and practice of scientific thinking.     

A Comprehensive Faculty,Staff, and Student Training Program Enhances Student Perceptions of a Course-Based Research Experience at a Two-Year Institution

Early research experiences must be made available to all undergraduate students, including those at 2-yr institutions who account for nearly half of America''s college students. We report on barriers unique to 2-yr institutions that preclude the success of an early course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). Using a randomized study design, we evaluated a CURE in equivalent introductory biology courses at a 4-yr institution and a 2-yr institution within the same geographic region. We found that these student populations developed dramatically different impressions of the experience. Students at the 4-yr institution enjoyed the CURE significantly more than the traditional labs. However, students at the 2-yr institution enjoyed the traditional labs significantly more, even though the CURE successfully produced targeted learning gains. On the basis of course evaluations, we enhanced instructor, student, and support staff training and reevaluated this CURE at a different campus of the same 2-yr institution. This time, the students reported that they enjoyed the research experience significantly more than the traditional labs. We conclude that early research experiences can succeed at 2-yr institutions, provided that a comprehensive implementation strategy targeting instructor, student, and support staff training is in place.     

西方教学领导研究的再度兴盛及逻辑转向

西方教学领导研究兴起于20世纪80年代初,后因理论研究与领导实践的脱节而一度沉寂。进入21世纪后,受政策驱动、实践需求以及研究突破三个因素合力影响,教学领导研究在西方国家再度兴盛。而教学领导的研究逻辑,也在再兴盛中逐渐转向,即先有真实而清晰的问题,再有问题解决为指向的研究;先有研究者站到实践者的立场、角度,理解对象的任务和情景,尔后才有解决实践问题的研究成果。     

非线性教学:教学研究新视阈

教学原本是非线性的复杂系统，但遭遇教学的“科学化”而变得简化和线性。由于教学价值观的时代转向，非线性教学观日渐凸显。与线性教学相比，非线性教学具有生命体验、意义建构、回环往复、互联关系和个性化反应等特性。非线性教学的实施策略具体体现在个体初步理解、显性对话、回顾与反思、澄清与发挥、协调信息等“批判-对话”的行为链中。     

Exploring Reading Instructional Decisions Through a Reflective Activity: A First Step in the Change Process

This article describes a reflective activity that may be used by teacher educators and educational consultants to help teachers identify factors that influence their reading instructional decisions as a first step to educational change. The reflective activity consists of two parts: developing individual concept webs and writing narrative details that explain the webs. Seventy-five elementary school teachers completed the activity. Through the use of a modified constant comparative method, four core categories of factors were found to influence reading instructional decisions: professional controls, significant others, teacher uniqueness, and professional development. Excerpts from teacher narratives illustrate the four categories. Implications for using the reflective activity to facilitate educational change are presented.     

学校教学研究的新思路:专长视角

关于教学的心理学研究,使得教育心理学与基础心理学之间的界限已经模糊;在这一背景下,专长的心理学研究——一个被学界视为基础工作的领域——正逐渐走出实验室,在教育实践中日益发挥重要作用,尤其为制订与实践中小学校学生的终极发展目标,提供确凿依据与指导性建议。     

How Designers Make Decisions: A Descriptive Model of Instructional Design for Informal Learning in Museums

In response to a call for theories of instructional design that are grounded in practice, I conducted a naturalistic study of the instructional design process for three permanent museum exhibits. An analysis of the data indicated that design involves a series of decisions, each of which has 4 components: • Design goals: principles to be achieved through the decision process and that must be realized before the choice is considered complete. • Design resources: the materials–both physical and intellectual–available to present information. • Design techniques: the strategies for achieving the goals using the design resources available. • Constraints: outside influences such as budget and schedule that limit the use of resources and techniques to achieve a goal. Each phase in the design process is characterized by certain types of decisions in which one of the four components dominates. Design team members participate to different extents in design decisions based on their roles. In theory, the model should transfer from museum exhibition design to instructional design. Further study would indicate the extent as well as which design decisions are guided by research, theory, or instinct, so we might understand and ultimately improve decisions about instructional programs.     

论教学设计理论发展的新领域——问题设计

教学设计的理论研究从萌芽至今先后受到工程学、行为主义、认知主义、建构主义等理论及各类媒体技术的影响,尤其是知识论、系统论等哲学思潮的转向,形成了多种研究定位和研究取向。然而在理论与教育实践之间建立良好桥梁作用的初衷被"理论与实践相脱节"的抱怨所挫伤。任务设计一直是教学设计的重要过程环节,却没有得到应有的重视。这是教学设计理论在实践中受到冷落的根本原因之一。问题设计是任务设计的核心内容之一,教学实践的需求以及理论发展的内在逻辑,将使问题设计成为教学设计理论研究的新领域。     

UML在教学设计中的应用研究

本文借助于系统工程的思想和方法,使用UML视图对教学设计进行了描述和表示,为教学设计的理论研究与实践提供了新的理论框架和建模方法。     

Urban Schools Rethink Themselves: Developing Instructional Skills in the Process of Change

The Urban Review - Educational reform challenges teachers to change both their schools and their craft. Can skills learned in the process of school improvement transfer to teaching? The Accelerated...     

Instructional practices in secondary science: How teachers achieve local and standards-based success

This article reports on analyses of the instructional practices of six middle- and high-school science teachers in the United States who participated in a research-practice partnership that aims to support reform science education goals at scale. All six teachers were well qualified, experienced, and locally successful—respected by students, parents, colleagues, and administrators—but they differed in their success in supporting students' three-dimensional learning. Our goal is to understand how the teachers' instructional practices contributed to their similarities in achieving local success and to differences in enabling students' learning, and to consider the implications of these findings for research-practice partnerships. Data sources included classroom videos supplemented by interviews with teachers and focus students and examples of student work. We also compared students' learning gains by teacher using pre–post assessments that elicited three-dimensional performances. Analyses of classroom videos showed how all six teachers achieved local success—they led effectively managed classrooms, covered the curriculum by teaching almost all unit activities, and assessed students' work in fair and efficient ways. There were important differences, however, in how teachers engaged students in science practices. Teachers in classrooms where students achieved lower learning gains followed a pattern of practice we describe as activity-based teaching, in which students completed investigations and hands-on activities with few opportunities for sensemaking discussions or three-dimensional science performances. Teachers whose students achieved higher learning gains combined the social stability characteristic of local classroom success with more demanding instructional practices associated with scientific sensemaking and cognitive apprenticeship. We conclude with a discussion of implications for research-practice partnerships, highlighting how partnerships need to support all teachers in achieving both local and standards-based success.     

对话与倾听：教学理论研究的“合法化”理路

作为一个重要的学术术语,“对话”既是理解教学理论研究基础的理论取向,也是探索教学理论研究“合法化”的重要研究方法。“对话”是两大知识群体——教学理论研究与教学实践工作的“对话”。“对话”构成了教学理论研究的理论背景与平台,敞开了教学理论或教学知识“合法化”的本质性状况。“对话”的达成有赖于教学理论研究的“倾听”。在当前的情况下,“倾听”可使教学理论氤氲化生出新的生命力与能量。     

The Stanford Instructional Television Network: A Partnership with Industry

The Stanford Instructional Television Network (SITN), the largest single university provider of live televised graduate level engineering courses in the world, partners with industry to address the issues of competitiveness and job productivity. For over 25 years, SITN has offered engineers, scientists and technical managers a means to extend their education without leaving the workplace. SITN uses microwave, tutored videotape instruction, satellite and two‐way video to deliver over 250 credit courses annually as well as non‐credit programmes, certificate offerings and research seminars to industry and government sites.     

研究生教育投资—收益成效几何？——基于微观研究数据的准实验研究

基于中国家庭收入调查数据,以接受研究生教育的城乡劳动力为研究对象,通过研究生教育收益率的测量发现：研究生教育与更高的工资水平直接相关,与大学教育相比,接受研究生教育能将全体、男性、女性、农业户籍和非农户籍劳动力的工资水平提高36.4%、39.3%、32.1%、17.3%以及41.9%;是否接受研究生教育在性别与户籍间存在较大差异,与男性、农业户籍以及非独生子女家庭相比,女性、非农户籍以及独生子女家庭接受研究生教育的概率值要高出1、2.2以及2.9个百分点;在纠正了接受研究生教育决策中的自选择问题后,利用倾向得分匹配法测得研究生教育收益率约为34.8%～40%。在此基础上,从研究生教育机会供给、教育财政补偿、人才培养动态调整三个维度,提出了进一步释放研究生教育社会经济价值的政策建议。     

Instructional Efficiency: Revisiting the Original Construct in Educational Research

This article revisits Paas and Van Merriënboer's (1993) Paas, F. and Van Merriënboer, J. J. G. 1993. The efficiency of instructional conditions: An approach to combine mental effort and performance measures. Human Factors., 35: 737–743. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] measure of instructional efficiency, which can be applied by educational researchers to compare the effects of different instructional conditions on learning. This measure relied on performance and mental effort on the test, and as such gave an indication of the quality of learning outcomes. The acquisition of more (less) efficient cognitive schemata is indicated by combinations of high (low) performance and low (high) mental effort. This instructional efficiency measure has become widely adopted, but in an adapted form that incorporates mental effort invested in the learning phase instead of the test phase. This article demonstrates that the adaptation has important consequences for the construct of instructional efficiency and for the type of conclusions that can be drawn. Examples are given to illustrate the various implications of different combinations of mental effort and performance measures in the light of more contemporary developments in educational research.     

天下风云一报人——纪念索尔兹伯里诞辰100周年

索尔兹伯里是二战以来著名的国际新闻记者。他是继斯诺、史沫特莱之后书写红军长征的三位美国记者之一。他重走长征路之后写的《长征——前所未闻的故事》轰动世界。他对中国人民友好,对中国新长征的领路人邓小平怀有深深的敬意。在他诞辰100周年之际,特将他独特的新闻生涯和写长征的名著介绍给我国广大读者。